


Stories Don't Come Without A Price

by OnceFutureEmrys



Series: My Camelove Fill 2021 [7]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Court Sorcerer Merlin (Merlin), Crack, Everyone Knows About The Magic, Excess of Italics, Gen, and everyone is chill with it basically, and now it's crack, and the knights are almost impressed, basically Two Idiots argue a lot, but - oh there goes the plot, but can be ignored, but loves them anyway, gwen is tired of their crap, slight Merthur, so much crack, this was meant to be sweet and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29820267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceFutureEmrys/pseuds/OnceFutureEmrys
Summary: Merlin and Arthur attempt to rehash the details of their first meeting.Keyword: attempt.
Relationships: Gwen & Knights of the Round Table (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: My Camelove Fill 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2180301
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Camelove 2021





	Stories Don't Come Without A Price

Merlin, Arthur, the Knights, and Gwen are sitting near the campfire on a late cold night. They are all dressed in commoner clothing, bundled near the crackling fire, their laughter ringing into the quiet forest. They are celebrating as it has been exactly one year since the magic ban had been repealed. Although there was much pushback in the earlier days, Camelot finally felt like it was heading towards what destiny had always wanted -- the Golden Age. 

So, here they are, gossiping like young maidens and drinking enough alcohol to make them drunk for a lifetime.

Truly, a worthy celebration. 

Leon asks if anyone has a story and of course Gwaine raises his cup in excitement and in drunkenness, burping quite loudly and making poor Percival nearly vomit from the smell. 

Gwaine starts to retell some of his tavern tales, but is soon stopped when everyone groans. There’s only so many times they can hear about vicious bar fights, beautiful women, and ravenous sexcapades before even _they_ start to become boring. Gwaine pouts but says nothing, taking another swig of his ale. 

“Anyone else have any fun stories they’d like to share,” Elyan asks. Gwaine opens his mouth and Elyan quickly adds, “anyone other than Gwaine.” Everyone laughs except for Gwaine who merely glares at everyone before continuing his brooding session featuring himself, an apple, and his cold ale.

“I always wanted to know…” Percival says and everyone perks up. Percival rarely ever speaks and so when he does, everyone around him knows that it’s important. At least to him. “... how _did_ Merlin come into your employment? Merlin doesn’t seem like the uh… servant type.”

Merlin, Gwen, Arthur, and Leon start laughing while the others look on thoughtfully as if finally realizing something they had never even considered“Yeah,” Gwaine says after a minute, “I’ve never heard of this one.”

“Me neither,” Elyan adds, sending a confused look towards Gwen. She merely shrugs.

“Well, it is a well-known tale in Camelot,” Gwen says as a way of explanation. “I didn’t expect some of Camelot’s own finest knights not to know of it.”

Elyan and Gwaine sputter while Percival shrugs, not seeming to mind. 

“Oh, well it’s certainly a tale,” Gwen says. “I know Gwaine will definitely get a kick out of it.”

“Why? Does the princess get his arse kicked?”

“Something like that,” she retorts. Then, “An attempt at least.” 

“Oh, well that’s all I need! Boys, please do tell us.

It’s only then that they realize that Arthur and Merlin have not contributed to the conversation. Looking back at them, Merlin seems to be grinning from ear to ear while Arthur blushes, trying to hide his embarrassment. 

Merlin wiggles his eyebrows at Arthur who narrows his eyes threateningly, although Merlin does not seem to careMerlin’s eyes suddenly turned gold as he used his magic to create a small but incredibly bright light in his hands. Some — Leon, Elyan, and Arthur — gasp while the rest merely chuckle. While the magic ban was repealed a year ago, everyone knew that the warlock was still wary of using it in front of others. After all, he had been trained to hide it since he was born. It was hard to come around to the concept that he indeed _could_ use magic for whatever he wanted without being executed. So, whenever Merlin performed magic in front of them (especially when he did it because he felt like it and not because they had asked) they had always leaned in closer, as if that would reveal the many other secrets that still lay underneath his sassy retorts and kind-hearted smiles. 

Merlin placed the bright light underneath his chin, allowing for the light to illuminate his face and for him to appear like a ghost. His mischievous grin and wide eyes were not helping with the scary look. Arthur merely rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a horror story, _Merlin_. Stop being so dramatic.” Merlin slumped, fisting his hand and immediately extinguishing the light. The other knights look towards their king, glaring so fiercely that Arthur gulped. “Alright, fine Merlin, whatever. But you better tell this story correctly. Or else.”

Merlin raises his eyebrows. “Or else what?Arthur smirks. “I will make your life a living hell.” 

“Strange…” Merlin says, overly-sweet. “I think I’ve heard that one before.

Before Arthur can retaliate, Merlin flashes the light once more, smiling so brightly Arthur. For a moment, Arthur believes it to be even brighter than the light. He scoffs, looking away in an attempt to hide how affected he is by Merlin’s smiles. “Just get on with it.”

Merlin leans in close, lowering his voice in an attempt to sound creepy as he starts. “A long long _long_ time ago…”

“Ten years ago—” Arthur quickly cuts in.“—that’s a good bit of time—”

“—not that big of a gap that it deserves a long long _long_ time ago."

“Whatever, whatever, _fine_ ,” Merlin says, throwing his arms up in the air. “Some time ago, approximately ten years ago—” Arthur smirks and Merlin just about loses it “— there was a young, very handsome, very intelligent commoner who came to Camelot.“Handsome? Intelligent? Who on Earth are you talking about, _Merlin_?”

“Who do you think?“Well, certainly not you. You were a bloody stick back then. You were way too skinny.”

“I wasn’t a stick,” Merlin says, surprisingly heated. “I was more like… a pole. A very round type of pole.”

“The only type of pole you were,” Arthur says, “was a _clot_ pole.Merlin gasps and the knights raise their eyebrows in a look of astonishment.

Gwen merely sighs. “Are you two ever going to _actually_ tell the story?”

Merlin and Arthur blush and Gwen laughs. 

“Well, I would if he would just let me tell it!“Well, I would let you tell it if you were telling it correctly!”

“Boys—” Gwen tries to cut in, but they ignore her, choosing to instead continue their loud bickering. 

“Here we go again…” Percival says quietly to himself.

“I still wonder why we ever let them speak,” Gwaine remarks“Probably because they’re surprisingly less annoying than you,” Elyan says. 

Gwaine gasps, putting a hand to his heart. “I resent that notion entirely!They turn back to look at the two idiots who, at this point, are in each other’s faces, jabbing each other in the chest and throwing their hands up in the air.“I’ve seen them arguing countless times,” Elyan says, “and yet I never realized they could get this heated over something so small,” Elyan says.

“Oh trust me,” Gwen says tiredly, knowing full well she’s been dealing with their crap for years. “They’re usually much worse than this.”

Gwaine laughs. “Wow. Friendship. Goals.” Elyan playfully shoves Gwaine but he just continues to laughThe knights are not shocked when the two continue to bicker, unaware of the others around them.

“Do you think we should just…” Leon says hesitantly, not sure how to end it.

“Leave them? Honestly, I have half a mind to do so,” Elyan replies.

“What’s the other half telling you to do?”

“Drop them in a cavern and leave them for dead.”

Leon nods. “Understandable.”

“Well, I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that in case you actually go along with it.” Gwen says, smirking.“Can’t be seen committing treason.” The knights smile very sweetly at her — too sweetly — and send her a thumbs up. 

“Of course, my lady.” With that, she wishes them a goodnight and heads off to bed. The others continue to stare as their King and Court Sorcerer continue to argue back and forth. At one point, Percival moves to snap his fingers in front of their faces to see if they’ll react. Unsurprisingly, they don’t. 

“Well, I’m out of options,” Percival says and shakes his head. “Those two are good.”

They weren’t even sure what they were talking about anymore. The last any of them had heard them say was something about pig-headedness and poetry.

“Yeah, I think we tried our best,” Leon says and the knights agree. They all stand up and start to head for their respective bedrolls“What happens when they inevitably get taken captive by bandits,” Gwaine asks, reaching to grab the rest of the ale before anyone can argue. They simply roll their eyes at his usual antics.

“It’s the king of Camelot and the most powerful sorcerer to ever walk the Earth,” Elyan scoffs. “I think they can manage.”  
“In this state?”

The knights turn to stare as the two idiots continue to banter, ignoring the child that had just come out of a bush and hesitantly that approaches the rest of their food. Before the knights could react, the child stole the rest of their food, quickly running into the blanket of darkness. Unsurprisingly, Merlin and Arthur notice nothing amiss.“Alright, so what do we do then,” Elyan asks, having changed his mind.“We’ll…” Percival hesitates, looking at the two adult children and physically shivering at the thought of having to break them apart. “We’ll get to that when it happens.”

The knights nod their heads at each other before getting ready for bed, still leaving two red-faced children fighting — one a king and the other a Court Sorcerer.

_Only in Camelot_ , Leon thought as he pulled his blanket over his head. _Only in Camelot._

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly was going to let them tell the story! I had it in mind that they were going to do it. 
> 
> But then this happened haha.
> 
> I blame their banter I literally couldn't stop writing their dialogue and so... it just didn't work out. 
> 
> But I hope you enjoyed their attempt to telling their friends about this story. Maybe I'll make a sequel to this or something where they're actually able to tell the story. Anyway, once again, this is unbeta'd so if anyone sees any grammar errors, do let me know! Thanks for reading!


End file.
